Sikur is defining the future of secure communication. Operating globally, it has offices in Latin America, United States, and Europe. Sikur works alongside governments and corporations that believe security is fundamental to the integrity of their work. We believe that security is not only about platforms and digital systems but is a mindset that surrounds every aspect of business.

Ryan Witt of Proofpoint discuss how “very attackable people” who are potential targets for hackers can be identified.

The ISMG Security Report appears on this and other ISMG websites on Fridays. Don’t miss the Nov. 9 and Nov. 16 editions, which respectively discuss cracking down on criminals’ use of encrypted communications and China’s economic espionage campaign.

It’s a familiar, and disheartening, refrain to most cybersecurity pros when smartphone users reject stringent security features because they’re just “too inconvenient.” But when it’s repeated by the president of the United States, as allegedly was recently the case, it sets alarm bells clanging.

While Barack Obama’s Blackberry use was restricted during his presidency and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was pilloried for using her private smart device for work, President Trump still wields at least two two devices issued to him by the government – one for phone calls and the other that lets him access Twitter and some news sites, Politico reported Tuesday.

The report cited officials as saying that the call phone had a camera and mic – which could be vulnerable to surveillance – and the “Twitter” phone isn’t swapped out regularly. Obama’s phone was swapped out monthly on the insistence of his security team.

After explosive excerpts from an upcoming book on the Trump administration were published earlier this year and reports noted that author Michael Wolff taped interviews, the White House finally bannedstaffers in January from using their personal cellphones as it said it would do in 2017.

At the time, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that since the “security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration” that all personal devices belonging to “guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing.”

Last fall, noting that government-issued phones, which among other things don’t allow users to text, are more secure than personal devices, Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly reportedly expressed support for a ban.

A long time after launching its security-focused GranitePhone, Brazil’s Sikur at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona on Tuesday brought the SikurPhone that helps you protect your cryptocurrency. The new smartphone comes with a pre-installed cryptocurrency wallet and includes cloud integration to securely store various cryptocurrencies under one roof. Pre-orders for 20,000 units for the SikurPhone have already started at a promotional price of $799 (roughly Rs. 52,100), while the units will ship sometime in August this year.

The SikurPhone is touted to be “hack proof”, protecting user data as well as cryptocurrencies from hackers. To test how the phone can protect users, Sikur hired ethical hackers from bug bounty company HackerOne between November and December who were failed to gain access to any information, as per COO Alexandre Vasconcelos. The company deployed a custom Android version on SikurPhone, which it calls SikurOS, that doesn’t allow you to install any of the third-party apps on your own. This doesn’t mean that the smartphone won’t support your favourite apps – you instead need to ask the Sikur team to configure the apps individually.

Vasconcelos, in an interaction with CNET, pointed out that while the SikurPhone is designed to protect user data, it will not give the same tough protection to save criminals. The executive highlighted that the company would disable access to its services if it gets hints of any criminal behaviour of a user. In a separate interview with Mashable, Vasconcelos revealed that the Sikur will not only secure your digital currencies through its cloud-connected wallet but will also remotely wipe the data in case if you lose your phone to protect your money. “If you lose your phone, we can remotely wipe it for you. You can get a new one, log in, and your funds will be safe, as your private keys are stored in our cloud,” he said.

The SikurPhone additionally includes fingerprint authentication, and the preloaded wallet offers up-to-date market information about pricing, cryptocurrency news, and quotes. The wallet also has multisignature (P2SH) and multiple wallet support to give you an extensive cryptocurrency platform.

On the specification side, the Android 7.0 Nougat-based SikurPhone features a 5.5-inch full-HD display with Gorilla Glass protection on top. It is powered by a MediaTek MT6750 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and has 13-megapixel rear camera sensor and a front camera sensor. Also, there is 64GB of onboard storage and a 2800mAh battery.